La Salsa - Fresh Mexican Grill
3637 Far West Blvd. Ste F, Austin, TX 78731
512.342.1010 • Website>

Rating: 26.5 out of 50

La Salsa is a relatively small franchise of taqueria-style grills- they have 2 or 3 locations in Austin. i’ve always avoided La Salsa- based on the exterior and the general look of the place- it just looks sterile and average. Nothing ever compelled me to try it- after all, there’s so many great local, family-owned taco joints, i just never expected it to be worth a crap. Well, this week, i gave in and checked it out.

The interior- clean and well lit, if a bit plain and sterile. There’s just nothing inviting about it- and i usually don’t complain about things like that, but it really seems too vanilla to be worth a shit- but that’s just appearances. I browsed the menu and they have many interesting taco baskets, as well as enchilada plates, burritos and salads. Apparently this California-based franchise caters to the heathly, fish taco and lowcarb crowd. no biggie. At least its not the generic tex-mex bullcrap…I settled on:

Sonora Fish Taco
A flour tortilla filled with grilled Wahoo, lettuce, tomatoes and Jack and Cheddar cheeses. Topped with our Sonora sauce…

and

Carnitas Guadalajara Taco
Two soft corn tortillas filled with pork carnitas, fire-roasted fajita veggies, mild Ancho Chile sauce and cheeses.

I picked up my fountain drink and basket of chips and proceeded to the salsa bar- I was very impressed by the selection of fresh salsas here. The standouts were the green sauce- spiced up with ceyenne, and the chunky tomato salsa was very tasty.

The mango salsa was just OK- too many onions though. The regular red Salsa was decent, but they could’ve done better with their namesake- I guess variety is they key here. I DO love variety. The Chips were pretty good- fresh, not greezy.

On to the tacos. The Sonora fish taco was stuffed full of tasty fish and fresh veggies. The sonora sauce was NOT VERY GOOD. Imagine a very bold enchilada sauce, but bright red, almost like the classic french dressing. I love sauces, but this didn’t help the taco, it overwhelmed the taste of everything else …bad move. On the the carnitas- the shredded pork was believably moist and tender- the double wrapped- corn tortillas wear stuffed to the brim with pork and fajita grilled poblano, onion, and red pepper- then drizzd with a ancho cream sauce that - like the sonora sauce- was a bit overwhelming…reminded me too much of mayonaise. gross. Fortunatley - the rest of the ingredients were great…so i ate it anyway.

Perhaps my texan buds aren’t used to the Cali-style tacos…I wanted to like them, but the got hung up on the 2 sauces…shame. the service was friendly and fast, the prices were good. Expect to pay $8-10 for a big lunch and drink…The atmosphere was not great- so this place won’t get a very good score, but i do plan to revisit-just to check some other menu items like the signature LaSalsa taco, and the fajita quesadillas. The eternal taco quest continues…

• Service: 6 (order at counter, no BS, pretty quick)
• Atmosphere: 2 (blahhh)
• Salsa: 7 (about 6 varieties, 3 of them were great, the rest OK)
• Food Quality: 5 (great meats, fresh, light, but nasty taco sauce drizzle)
• Price: 6.5 (come with a $10 bill & leave full; and free chips n salsa)